


Rotating Blades

by XtaticPearl



Series: Phoenix and Eagle - MCU [4]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence, Developing Friendships, M/M, Pre-Slash, The Avengers (2012) - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-01
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-16 05:35:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14157918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XtaticPearl/pseuds/XtaticPearl
Summary: In his defense, Tony wasn't actually expecting to meet the man. He'd heard about the discovery in the Arctic a couple of days back and Pepper let his mini-freakout pass without much mention, but he hadn't expected to be called in for this.Briefing Captain America on a possible world-ending mission was not how Tony imagined his day going and yet there they were, in front of an old gym.





	Rotating Blades

"I feel like you're trying to make me your stooge"

Fury ignored Tony's comment and kept walking, eyes flicking down to check his phone between steps. Tony considered hacking into the man's phone, if nothing than to annoy him as much as he was annoying Tony with this disastrous idea. A terrible idea of nuclear proportions, if he wanted to be funny. 

Pepper hadn't particularly found it funny, but that was more because of the nerves she could see in Tony when Coulson had dropped in with the news, right in the middle of their celebration of a successfully greenlit Tower. 

_"You have work," Pepper eyed the exploded holoscreens, face pinching when her eyes passed over a few details but her eyes met Tony's and she was understanding, "You've got a lot of work."_

_He wasn't used to asking for help, not without death hanging over his head, but he still wished he could ask her to stay. To help him through this._

_"What if I finished," he asked, shooting a quick glance at Coulson over her shoulder before inching closer to Pepper, "You know, what if I didn't.."_

_"If you didn't have work? You mean after you're done?" Pepper smiled, amusement and a hint of smugness that people forgot to attribute to her, now evident in the smile she shot him. Tony loved her with a lingering ache but it was a suppressed one by one, a dull drift in his consciousness. "Well," she whispered and tilted her head to let him in on a secret, "then I'll help you get out of jail with SHIELD and you can take that vacation you've been eyeing in Cipriani."_

_"End of the world, Pep," Tony grinned at her as he leaned away, chuckling at the expression on her face, "What if I don't survive that? We should take the vacation right away, don't you think?"_

_"Get to work, Mr. Stark," Pepper squeezed his hand and moved away with a fond look that almost belied the worry marring her face when her eyes slid back to the screen that showed Captain America's profile, "I'll be in D.C. Phil, are you going by La Guardia by any chance?"_

_"I can drop you," Coulson assured her and Tony met the man's eyes for a pointed second before he turned back to the screens, staring at a blue cube that he had to understand before it was too late._

"I mean, I'd make a terrible stooge, you probably realize that already," Tony commented as they passed the corridor to the gym where they were supposed to meet their guy, "Following really isn't my style and I don't think you realize how much the SHIELD uniform needs to be revamped. I don't know who's designing it right now but I hope it's not Coulson. Is it him? If it's him then I definitely predict that he's going to add in something terrible next. Like go-go boots maybe."

"You were brought in, Mr. Stark, for your expertise in the cube," Fury cut through Tony's thoughts with the ease of commanding troops for years, "because I heard something about you having read Selvig's notes and becoming something of an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics."

"You're stroking my ego on purpose now, aren't you?" Tony grinned even where Fury couldn't see him but it was all he could do to control his confusion and frustration. 

In his defense, Tony hadn't actually expected to meet the man. He'd heard about the discovery in the Arctic a couple of days back and Pepper had let his mini-freakout pass without much mention, but he hadn't expected to be called in for this.

Briefing Captain America on a possible world-ending mission was not how Tony imagined his day going and yet there they were, in front of an old gym.

"This isn't Ross, you know?" Tony said quietly before they entered, eyes fixed on entrance, "He's not gonna fall for manipulation."

"No, this is a soldier who died trying to save the world," Fury replied and finally turned his head to look at Tony for a minute, "And I'm counting on his willingness to save it again."

" _To die again, maybe_ ," Tony thought to himself and took the step into the gym, letting the harsh lights wash over him. His eyes landed on the back of a man pounding a punching bag before he saw the bag being snapped off the chain, exploding in the middle and the man simply clenching his hands in response. 

When Fury spoke up, Tony was almost thankful for not having to do it himself and watched as Steve Rogers turned around, a ghost in a soldier's body. 

Tony stayed back by unspoken accord, choosing to wait for once, and watched Fury talk to Rogers while he got the chance to observe the man. The legend he had grown up with an invisible form. The man Howard had turned into his own twisted obsession and regret, a potent mixture stronger than the alcohol he passed on to Tony. Captain America looked human in sweat-soaked gym clothes and Tony corrected himself immediately. 

He looked like a soldier. A wary, jaded, ticking bomb of a soldier who knew better than to expect the complete truth from those who had sought to deceive him at first meet. 

Tony still didn't understand how Rogers had cracked Fury's con of the 1940s set-up in minutes but he did understand that the man was smarter than he was given credit for. It was - an interesting inference. 

Rogers' eyes slid up to meet Tony's over Fury's shoulder at a point and Tony held his gaze, not backing down from whatever calculation passed the soldier's mind as he heard Fury's explanation. 

"I'll let Stark explain about the cube now, Captain," Fury said as he got ready to slip out of the place, pausing to look at Rogers for a moment of solemn understanding, "The world is still standing, Captain. But it'll need you to help it continue doing so now."

Tony waved lazily at Fury before turning back to Rogers, extremely aware of being in the same room as the man he had battled a complicated relationship with in his mind while growing up. 

He breathed in and exhaled, ready to give the practiced spiel when the man spoke first.

"I didn't expect Fury to bring you in for this," Rogers said, calm steel in his gaze as he unwrapped his hands and looked up at Tony. Tony considered bristling when the man continued, "I'm not sure how much I can tell you about the weapon to help you track it and it's a waste of your time to coach me through your discoveries when I can read it instead. It would have been easier for you to meet someone, well, more scientific, wouldn't it?"

Tony paused and took in the words, letting them break through his fixed plan. At first glance, the words seemed confrontational, suspicious at best but there was a sincerity there that lent Tony pause. 

 _He's curious_ , Tony thought.

 _He's expecting another manipulation_ , he realized and there was a flash of memory there, a montage of Obie's arm around his shoulder while the press snapped pictures, Fury asking for a favor while placing it as a condition to qualify, a Congressional committee willing to accept Iron Man only if it wasn't in Tony's control. 

Tony swallowed the moment and breathed out, letting go of the plan he had walked in with. He wasn't here to talk to Captain America, he realized and it settled as a steady weight in him. He was here with Steve Rogers. And that was just a smart man who knew to separate truth from propaganda. 

"I'm not sure science would be the only thing that'll be needed for this," Tony said and walked forward, letting himself relax his shoulders, "We could use a bit of strategy if Loki is really interested in becoming king of the world."

"Loki," Rogers echoed, a slight frown on his face as he hefted a punching bag onto the bench beside him, "That's Norse Mythology, isn't it?"

"I'm not sure if the horns and horse stories are true but yeah, apparently the gods are now interested in overthrowing the government," Tony shrugged, a mild grin on his face when he finally came to stand in front of the man, "But I'd describe him more of a, well, a dictator-to-be if his mission statement is to be believed."

Rogers clenched his jaw but looked down at the file clutched in his hand before looking back up at Tony.

"What's your opinion about all this?" he asked and Tony could see the wariness hidden beneath the brave face, the weariness of an unending war's child. Seventy years of death only to come back to a world that wasn't his. Tony hated how his father had wrapped himself in the ideal of Captain America but his father hadn't met this man who looked like he was carrying the weight of a lost world, still heavy on his shoulders. Howard was dead and Steve Rogers was a man belonging with the ghosts stuck in the land of the living strangers. 

The world was his cave and Tony knew how being trapped felt. 

"Honestly, Captain?" he raised an eyebrow, shrugging as he brought out his phone and pushed out the holoscreen of information he had classified, noting the way Steve stilled for a second before relaxing at the visual, "I think Loki is dragging his battles to our world and he won't care what he lays to waste in that process. I also think that SHIELD is hiding something about what the Tesseract was doing in their possession in the first place."

"You don't trust Fury?" Steve asked, frowning with a considering expression at Tony and the genius grinned sharp.

"The Tesseract is a core of untapped and pure energy, Cap," he quipped, tapping at the floating image of the cube to drop down the information on it, "There are a lot of avenues for it and I'd agree that it could revolutionize the energy business."

"But?"

"But in my experience, the weapon is as dangerous as the hand that holds it," Tony declared and Steve's eyes snapped back to his, a knowing look fading into understanding, "I have a bit of history with the wrong hands holding power meant for the good and - well, it doesn't always lead to good intentions."

"I read about it," Steve commented absently before he held Tony's stare, "You shut down your weapons division."

"Some falls teach you to rise right," he said casually but Steve nodded, not commenting on it but apparently understanding what Tony meant. 

"Well," Steve said after a minute, exhaling and shifting from wariness to battle-readiness and Tony remembered reading about a 90-pound man who had jumped into human-testing of a serum that had turned him into a weapon, "let's get to business then. Is Iron Man called into this mission?"

"Captain," Tony held out a hand, risking it, extending the first step to relearning the man behind the legends he knew, "there's never a question about it."

Steve caught Tony's hand and the genius hoped that this would be the right start to a battle they couldn't afford to lose. 

"Good to know, Mr. Stark," the Captain said and Tony nodded. 

"Let's get started."

 

**Author's Note:**

> This oneshot can be expanded into a fuller fic if you guys would like to see it. Please let me know in your feedback.


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